Pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) derived peptides are known to affect food intake. Several lines of evidence support the notion that the G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) of the melanocortin receptor (MC-R) family, several of which are expressed in the brain, are targets of POMC derived peptides involved in the control of food intake and metabolism.
Evidence for the involvement of MC-R in obesity includes: i) the agouti (Avy) mouse which ectopically expresses an antagonist of the MC-1R, MC-3R and MC-4R is obese, indicating that blocking the action of these three MC-Rs can lead to hyperphagia and metabolic disorders; ii) MC-4R knockout mice (Huszar et al., Cell, 88:131-141, 1997) recapitulate the phenotype of the agouti mouse and these mice are obese; iii) the cyclic heptapeptide MC-1R, MC-3R, MC-4R, and MC-5R agonist melanotanin-II (MT-II) injected intracerebroventricularly (ICV) in rodents, reduces food intake in several animal feeding models (NPY, ob/ob, agouti, fasted) while ICV injected SHU-9119 (MC-3R, MC-4R antagonist; MC-1R and MC-5R agonist) reverses this effect and can induce hyperphagia; and
iv) chronic intraperitoneal treatment of Zucker fatty rats with an α-NDP-MASH derivative (HP228) has been reported to activate MC-1R, MC-3R, MC-4R and MC-5R and to attenuate food intake and body weight gain over a 12 week period.
Five MC-Rs have thus far been identified, and these are expressed in different tissues. MC-1R was initially characterized by dominant gain of function mutations at the extension locus, affecting coat color by controlling phaeomelanin to eumelanin conversion through control of tyrosinase. MC-1R is mainly expressed in melanocytes. MC-2R is expressed in the adrenal gland and represents the ACTH receptor. MC-3R is expressed in the brain, gut and placenta and may be involved in the control of food intake and thermogenesis. MC-4R is uniquely expressed in the brain and its inactivation was shown to cause obesity. (A. Kask, et al., “Selective antagonist for the melanocortin-4-receptor (HS014) increases food intake in free-feeding rats, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun., 245:90-93, 1998). MC-5R is expressed in many tissues including white fat, placenta and exocrine glands. A low level of expression is also observed in the brain. MC-5R knock out mice reveal reduced sebaceous gland lipid production (Chen et al., Cell, 91:789-798, 1997).
MC-4R appears to play a role in other physiological functions as well, namely controlling grooming behavior, erection and blood pressure. Erectile dysfunction denotes the medical condition of inability to achieve penile erection sufficient for successful intercourse. The term “impotence” is often times employed to describe this prevalent condition. Synthetic melanocortin receptor agonists have been found to initiate erections in men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction (H. Wessells et al., “Synthetic Melanotropic Petide Initiates Erections in Men With Psychogenic Erectile Dysfunction: Double-Blind, Placebo Controlled Crossover Study,” J. Urol., 160: 389-393, 1998). Activation of melanocortin receptors of the brain appears to cause normal stimulation of sexual arousal. Evidence for the involvement of MC-R in male and/or female sexual dysfunction is detailed in WO 00/74679.
Diabetes is a disease in which a mammal's ability to regulate glucose levels in the blood is impaired because the mammal has a reduced ability to convert glucose to glycogen for storage in muscle and liver cells. In Type I diabetes, this reduced ability to store glucose is caused by reduced insulin production. “Type II Diabetes” or “non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus” (NIDDM) is the form of diabetes, which is due to a profound resistance to insulin stimulating or regulatory effect on glucose and lipid metabolism in the main insulin-sensitive tissues, muscle, liver and adipose tissue. This resistance to insulin responsiveness results in insufficient insulin activation of glucose uptake, oxidation and storage in muscle and inadequate insulin repression of lipolysis in adipose tissue and of glucose production and secretion in liver. When these cells become desensitized to insulin, the body tries to compensate by producing abnormally high levels of insulin and hyperinsulemia results. Hyperinsulemia is associated with hypertension and elevated body weight. Since insulin is involved in promoting the cellular uptake of glucose, amino acids and triglycerides from the blood by insulin sensitive cells, insulin insensitivity can result in elevated levels of triglycerides and LDL which are risk factors in cardiovascular diseases. The constellation of symptoms which include hyperinsulemia combined with hypertension, elevated body weight, elevated triglycerides and elevated LDL is known as Syndrome X.
Spiropiperidine and piperidine derivates have been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,294,534 B1, WO 01/70337, WO 00/74679 and WO 01/70708 as agonists of melanocortin receptor(s), which can be used for the treatment of diseases and disorders, such as obesity, diabetes and sexual dysfunction.
In view of the unresolved deficiencies in treatment of various diseases and disorders as discussed above, it is an object of the present invention to provide novel piperazine derivatives, which are useful as melanocortin receptor agonists to treat obesity, diabetes, and male and female sexual dysfunction.